Kamenets-Podolsky Pocket - The Offensives

The Offensives

In mid-February 1944, the 1st Panzer Army found itself defending the line in the north-western Ukraine. The Army had just completed operations to rescue the two Corps trapped in the Korsun–Shevchenkovsky Offensive, which had exhausted the army's III Panzer Corps.

In February 1944, the 1st Panzer Army—commanded by Generaloberst Hans-Valentin Hube—consisted of four Corps, three of which were Panzer Corps (comprising 20 Panzer or Panzergrenadier divisions). Together with the attached Army units, the 1st Panzer Army included over 200,000 troops, and was the most powerful formation of Generalfeldmarshall Erich von Manstein's Army Group South.

Soviet Marshal Georgi Zhukov realized the role of the 1st Panzer Army, and began planning to bring about its destruction that could, and did, result in the collapse of the entire South-Eastern Front. Zhukov planned a multi-Front offensive, involving his own 1st and Marshal Ivan Konev's 2nd Ukrainian Front. This force of over eleven Armies (including two Air Armies), was to attempt to outflank and encircle Hube's Army, and, in a repeat of the Battle of Stalingrad, reduce the resulting pocket (in German, kessel meaning "cauldron") until all troops in it have surrendered. The operations were to take place on the extreme north and south of the Army Group South's front.

Manstein was informed of large, but deceptive, troop movements all across Hube's front; however, with Adolf Hitler's refusal to allow strategic withdrawals, there was little he could do. The Soviet offensives began in early March, with Zhukov taking personal command of Vatutin's 1st Ukrainian front. The Red Army's massive concentration in troops and material forced Hube to withdraw his northern flank to south-west until it reached the Dniester river. Despite constant Red Army attacks, this position held until late March. On 22 March, following an operational switching maneuver, five Red Army Tank Corps of the 1st and 4th Tank Armies and the 3rd Guards Tank Army penetrated the extreme northern flank of Hube's position east of Tarnopol, and advanced south between the Zbruch and Seret rivers. The force crossed the Dniester, and in an attempt to outflank and surround Hube's Army, continued toward Chernivtsi, while being followed by infantry Corps which began establishing defensive positions on the flanks of the breach created in the German front.